In the second quarter of this year, sales of global passenger electric vehicles increased by 61% reaching 2.18 million units, as per the new report on Monday. Interestingly, Elon Musk‘s Tesla was dethroned by China’s BYD Auto as the top-selling EV brand for the first time, according to Business Standard.
BYD Auto deployed more than 354,000 EVs in Q2, a 266% year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, Tesla saw a global increase of 27% year-over-year which was below estimates. Despite the significant growth of Tesla in the United States, Covid-19 shutdowns affected its operations in China.
Pursuant to Counterpoint Research, battery electric cars (BEVs) made up about 72% of all EV sales, with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) made up the remainder.
Impressively, China continued to lead the EV market, followed by Europe and the US. From just 0.64 million units in Q2 2021, China’s EV sales climbed by about 92 % YoY reaching 1.24 million units.
“As the global semiconductor shortage has eased a bit, automakers are able to cater to the increasing demand for EVs. Moreover, EV sales would have been higher if China had not experienced fresh Covid-19 outbreaks during March,” said senior analyst Soumen Mandal.
Although improved results are anticipated for the second half of 2022, he warned that economic downturns, the energy crisis, supply chain bottlenecks, and rising geopolitical tensions could impede the development of China’s automobile market, particularly for EVs.
Additionally, BMW saw an 18% YoY increase in EV sales during the second quarter. The BMW 5-Series, 3-Series, and X5 models are leading the company’s drive in the PHEV market, while the X3 and i-Series models are leading the BEV segment.
“Incentives play a crucial role in increasing EV adoption. For example, China’s strong incentive program for both automakers and consumers has helped the country become the global EV leader,” said Research Vice President Neil Shah.
“Apart from big markets, smaller markets like India, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia have started providing various benefits for EV buyers and automakers either directly as a rebate in prices or tax exemption,” he added.
It is worth noting that Tesla was more severely impacted by the COVID19 lockdowns than BYD, which benefited from the fact that most of its operations are not situated in the regions and cities that suffered the worst restrictions.
